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Sunday, 19 January 2014

Ambulance station field

Tidy weather for a change, my chickens sunning themselves down the bottom of the garden, even had a bit of tunnage from a couple of Dunnocks and a Song Thrush. So its out for a quick nose about behind the old Ambulance Station in Aberbargoed. Its mostly a small area of grassland and planted trees, the northern end of what used to be Bargoed pit. It has one of those stupid outdoor gyms that nobody use.

I mostly focused my search under the moss covered stones found in amongst the trees. Found a number of Glomeris marginata rolled up under most of the stones i turned. This one caught my eye, not seen one this colour. I've seen close, they have always had some black on them and have all been small specimens, this one was large.

I found my only beetle, this i thought would stand nicely for a few shots. Manged to get in one before it tried to make a run for it down a mouse hole.

Leistus ferrugineus

The walk back took me on to the old train station. A quick search over the walls never fail to produce Clausilia bidentata.

Aberbargoed Train Station

Juv Clausilia bidentata

Clausilia bidentata

Always worth keeping your eyes peeled for the terrestrial Nemertine - Argonemertes dendyi. Found two of a colour i don't normally find, some shade of pink seems to be the usual here. Geonemertes dendyi also seems to be another name for this Australian introduction.

4 comments:

Your last two posts have prompted me to take a closer look at centipedes and woodlice. My last new centipede was the coastal Strigamia maritima in the back end of last year and you have a quite a few new ones for me there.

Its a good time to look for woodlice like Haplophthalmus, this wet weather helps a lot. I'm always on the look out for S. maritima when ever i go Sea-fishing, would like to add that one to my finds...can't believe I've yet to connect.

I know you already know this. Good spots to look mate are at the base of dry stone walls or any place where you can find stones slightly embedded into the ground....same for logs.

I also sea fish, mainly spinning but I am currently stocking up on soft lures as they seem to be becoming popular. Spinning is a good roving method that allows me to inspect the shoreline for interesting stuff.